Fallen Oak: Mississippi's Best Course Is Resort-Only

Tom Fazio had 510 acres of Mississippi forest to work with and an unlimited budget from MGM Resorts. He used almost all of it. The result is Fallen Oak Golf Course in Saucier, eighteen miles north of Biloxi in the DeSoto National Forest, consistently ranked the top course in Mississippi and one of the better resort layouts in the country.

The Shadow Creek Connection

Fallen Oak traces its origins to Steve Wynn, who commissioned Fazio to build Shadow Creek in Las Vegas in the early 1990s. Wynn wanted the same concept for his Beau Rivage casino on the Gulf Coast: take a piece of land that seems unsuitable for golf, spend serious money transforming it, then restrict access to hotel guests only. When MGM absorbed Wynn's properties, they followed through on the Mississippi plan. Fazio opened Fallen Oak in 2006, two decades after the original idea.

The Shadow Creek model is apparent in how the course operates. You stay at Beau Rivage, you play Fallen Oak. Transportation runs between the resort and the course. Caddies are available. Cart paths are hidden to preserve the sense of wilderness. Round counts stay low by design, which means conditions that would be hard to replicate at a public track.

Terrain That Surprises

The Gulf Coast reputation is flat land and humidity. Saucier is different. Fazio found meaningful elevation change on the property, and the routing takes full advantage of it. Elevated tee boxes give views across fairways lined with oaks, magnolias, and longleaf pines. Ten bridges carry golfers over natural streams and wetlands. The back nine pushes the terrain harder than the front.

Fazio reduced earthmoving on this project compared to Shadow Creek, where the Las Vegas desert required wholesale reshaping. Here he let the natural contours guide the holes. The result feels less manufactured, more like a course that belongs to its land.

The Numbers

Fallen Oak plays to 7,487 yards from the tips, with a course rating of 76.5 and a slope of 142. Par is 72. The second set of tees measures 6,948 yards (rating 73.7, slope 141), and the middle option sits at 6,549 yards with a 138 slope. A forward set at 5,362 yards carries a 127 slope. That spread gives golfers at most skill levels a legitimate test.

The bunkering is aggressive throughout. Fazio originally installed 89 bunkers, though a 2014 renovation reduced and reshaped them to be slightly less penal. Steep-faced hazards crowd landing zones and guard green complexes. The greens themselves run large, which keeps approach shot misses somewhat forgiving, but the putting surfaces have enough movement to create three-putt opportunities.

Hole 18 and the Name

The course name comes from a specific tree. During construction, a large oak partially fell and stayed rooted on the right side of the 18th fairway. Fazio's crew used it as a gathering spot, and he left it in play. The 18th is a 493-yard par 4 from the tips: a blind tee shot to a fairway pinched by bunkers, then a long approach to a green with a pond left and a bunker right. The head pro's standard line is that par is a legitimate finishing score.

The par-3 third hole wraps around a pond with a crescent-shaped green that tilts toward marsh. The opener is a par 5 with a large water oak as the visual target off the tee, water hazards framing the fairway. The 10th, a 468-yard par 4, sets up the back nine with bunkers positioned to force decisions off the tee.

Professional History

The PGA Tour Champions ran its Rapiscan Systems Classic at Fallen Oak from 2010 through 2019, and again in 2022. The tournament produced a strong list of winners: Fred Couples in 2012, Steve Stricker in 2018, and Miguel Angel Jimenez winning back-to-back in 2016 and 2017. Steven Alker closed out the tournament's run at the course in 2022 with an eighteen-under performance. Ten-plus years of Tour Champions competition gave Fallen Oak repeated validation at the professional level.

The course also hosts the Fallen Oak Collegiate Invitational, which has drawn top-ten programs from the SEC and Big Ten. In 2025, Ole Miss, LSU, Illinois, Tennessee, and Alabama were among the fourteen teams competing.

What to Expect

Fallen Oak is a Beau Rivage guest-only property. Green fees run in the 00-00 range depending on the package. Walking is permitted and caddies are available. The pro shop carries Fallen Oak merchandise. Practice facilities are solid. Limo transfers from the resort are available for groups.

Golf Digest ranks it #1 in Mississippi and among the top fifty public-access courses in the country. Golfweek puts it second on their list of best casino courses nationally. The low round count from restricted access means conditions rival private clubs in the region.

If you are staying at Beau Rivage and care about golf, skipping Fallen Oak would be a mistake. The course delivers a Fazio design at its most thoughtful, on land that challenges the assumption that Mississippi has nothing to offer serious golfers.

View the full scorecard, tee ratings, and hole-by-hole yardages for Fallen Oak Golf Course on Stymie.